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Jul 18, 2013

Homestuck: 7/3/13 – 7/16/13

By Ian Cory

In my coverage of
the first week I put forth the idea that Homestuck is driven by its
characters attempting to escape cycles of control that dictate their lives with
or without their awareness. I don’t think this is a particularly outlandish
interpretation of the story, as these kinds of restrictive and
self-perpetuating cycles appear from nearly the beginning of the comic. The
kids were inevitably going to play the game, because otherwise they would not
exist, Bec Noir was always going to ruin the troll session because otherwise
Bec would never have been prototyped, the list goes on. For the most part,
these cycles are enacted through the creation of time travel paradoxes, which
call attention to the slippery line between free will and predetermination. But
there are other more subtle systems that drive the characters. Take, for
example, the way that the kids’ relationships with their guardians shaped their
personalities and worldviews. Even the structure of Homestuck is often
built from systematic arcs that fit together into a larger narrative. After one
month’s worth of updates, not counting a blackout week, Andrew Hussie has
closed the loop on one such system; the three planet character select screen.

Before we get into
the third and final arc on LOLAR, let’s look over where the other two arcs took
us. The first segment, on LOHAC, gave us a look into Dave’s psyche, along with
Jade’s dubious moral position. The second, on LOFAF, helped push the plot
forward, planting seeds for the denizen quests along with a narrative tool in
Jane’s revival powers. This third section splits the difference between the
characters and the story. Focusing on the Rose and Terezi’s hangover induced
rants, this brief but hilarious interaction reveals a lot about why the seers
started drinking to begin with. Terezi, even now, is haunted by regret over
killing Vriska, and as a result has lost faith in her ability to use her powers
to help her friends. Much like the scene with Jade on LOHAC, we get a brief
look into Terezi’s bitterness over her break up with Dave, who is more and more
being defined by his lack of maturity and inability to relate to others. This
emotional disconnect is just as big of an issue for Rose. She’s unable to think
of what to say to Roxy until its too late, and she harbors feelings of
inadequacy in her relationship with Kanaya. Even worse, she struggles to
remember details about life on earth before SBURB. Even though the Rainbow
Rumpus Rehab Town* is played for laughs, it speaks to a deeper undercurrent of
loss and guilt that has hung over much of Act 6.

After catching brief glimpses of John in the
other two paths, we finally get a full-fledged conversation with him for the
first time since he became unstuck in time and space. While we don’t get too
much of a look into how this development has affected him, as usually he seems
chipper and carefree under incredibly stressful circumstances, John does speak
candidly about the extent of his new reality warping powers. Now that the
characters as well as the readers are all aware of how these retcons work
outside of normal “rules” of Homestuck, Hussie is free to use this
device to do something truly radical. As I said in my opening paragraph, Homestuck
is about the struggle to break free from the control of the predetermined
nature of the SBURB universe, and it looks like John finally has the power to
do so. Hussie illustrates this brilliantly, by showing John’s wind powers
sweeping in from outside of the panel, representing freedom from Hussie
himself, and clearing the screen of glitches, representing freedom from Lord
English’s manipulations. When this clever trick first appeared in the LOHAC arc
I wrote it off as Hussie indulging in striking images for the sake of it [for
its own sake?], but their continued use and ties to deeper thematic material
prove that he has a much deeper command of visual metaphor than he is given
credit for.

There is the lingering question of what exactly
Hussie plans on using this retcon power for later in the act. While I’m in no
position to speculate, I can imagine that the results will be incredibly
divisive. Fan reaction to the first wave of retcon’s was mostly positive
because it was played for laughs and is largely inconsequential to the plot.
Using this same tool to dramatic effect is likely to cause the backlog of Homestuck
to look extremely different, which is likely to infuriate anyone concerned with
the integrity of the older acts. Personally, I’m torn. I’d love for Homestuck
to get really weird, but not at the cost of the story that I read and fell in
love with. Only time will tell.

*The newest variation on a long running joke used by Terezi and
Karkat.